Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Charleston: Cirstea serves the match--with Russian dressing

I didn't make it to the Cirstea-Chakvetadze match until the first set had ended. Having lost that set, 3rd seed Anna Chakvetadze rather handily took the second. It appeared she had found her footing and was going to cruise, but this is Chakvetadze we're talking about, and consistency just isn't one of her strengths.

Chakvetadze's first serve--when she got it in--looked pretty good. However, as the final set moved on, she became more and more error-prone, following beautiful down-the-line backhand shots with nervous errors. Cirstea, for her part, hung in, stayed very cool-headed, and kept the ball in the court.

Chakvetadze took advantage of all six break points she had against her opponent. Cirstea had thirteen break chances, and was successful with eight of them. That is a lot of service breaks: Welcome to clay season.

Cirstea def. Chakvetadze, 6-2, 1-6, 6-2

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